Kayla Kincannon and her mother, Naomi, with gifts that the Madison Heights teen received from her favorite singer Taylor Swift. Kayla, who has been battling brain cancer for over a year, had lunch with Swift last Saturday in Nashville, Tenn. Macomb Daily staff photo by David Dalton

MADISON HEIGHTS -- Kayla Kincannon, 17, has been inspired by the music and positive lyrics of Taylor Swift ever since the superstar became the youngest singer/songwriter to top the country chart in 2006.

Now Kayla has personal memories of the Grammy Award winner to bring her smiles and comfort as she fights an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Kayla's wish to meet the pop-crossover sensation came true last weekend while she and her father, Brad Kincannon, were in Memphis, Tenn., to see doctors at St. Jude Research Hospital.

Kayla's friends at Lamphere High School, team rivals at Warren Mott High School, and countless Twitter and Facebook users had caught the singer's attention by sharing "Operation get Kayla to meet Taylor Swift" so often it made a list of top 10 trending topics.

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Swift flew Kayla's mother and brother down to Memphis last Friday and then had her tour bus driver pick up the Kincannons for lunch Saturday at the Spaghetti Factory in Nashville.

"She said it's a place where guys took girls on fancy dates when she was in high school," Kayla said as she talked about "the best day of my life" at one of her own favorite restaurants, the Cozy Cabin, Warren.

Swift, 23, and her mother, Andrea, met with the Kincannons for two hours.

"It was so cool to hang out at a place memorable to her, and I felt like I was talking to a best friend," Kayla said. "She's that real: down to earth and humble."

Swift wore jeans, a flannel shirt and her hair in a ponytail. A few things the hit maker said and did stood out to Kayla, whose own long hair used to make her look a lot like Swift until she lost it to cancer treatment.

"Her word is fearless," Kayla said about the name of Swift's second album. "Taylor says to her fearless doesn't mean the absence of fear but living in spite of things that scare you, and I am living in spite of this cancer."

Kayla was admitted to Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, with a severe headache and vomiting on her 16th birthday, which was Dec. 22, 2011. She learned she had brain cancer the next day. During a four-hour surgery, doctors removed 30 percent of a tumor and scheduled her for radiation and chemo pills five times a week.

However, a month later a brain scan showed the tumor had grown back to its original size. Kayla began an IV chemo treatment.

"It did work and my tumor shrunk from the size of a small orange to a small gum ball," she said. "There were a few months where the tumor was stable."

Then, on Dec. 19, Kayla said her left leg started "acting funny." She went in for an MRI.

"When the results came in we were told there was another tumor," her mother, Naomi Kincannon, said. "Later we found out it might be radiation damage."

Sometimes healthy brain tissue dies from a poorly understood side effect of radiation therapy called necrosis. Cancer experts all over the United States have been offering opinions about Kayla's current situation and they are divided.

As she faced another bleak birthday and Christmas, Kayla's friends and even students from rival schools united to give her the best gift they could. They began tweeting about her hope to meet Taylor Swift the same night the family got word that it looked like Kayla had a second tumor.

"Everyone at my school and people I didn't know at Madison High School and Mott put it in everything they tweeted," Kayla said. "They would tweet 'I'm eating breakfast #Operationgetkaylatomeettaylorswift.' "

"It spread like wildfire," her mother added. "One of Taylor's people must have pointed it out to her."

On Jan. 17, when Kayla and her mom were walking into a doctor's appointment, Kincannon got a call from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which had been trying to arrange a backstage meeting for Kayla.

"Taylor Swift contacted them and said she wanted to go through me directly," Kincannon said. "They said this has never happened before. Later that day, Taylor's mother left me a message."

More than a meeting was going to happen.

Kayla and her father proceeded with their plan to fly to Tennessee on Friday morning for their appointment at St. Jude. That afternoon Swift arranged for Kayla's mother and brother, Josh, 12, to fly out first class and join them.

On Saturday, one of Swift's buses that sleeps 12 picked the family up at their hotel for the two-hour ride to Nashville. As the Kincannons walked in the front door, the Swifts went in a back door and they met in a private room.

"It was so personal," Kayla said. "There were big hugs instantly and having my family there took a lot of pressure off me. There wasn't one moment of awkward silence."

They ate, talked about school and pets, and Swift even agreed they looked alike.

"Oh my gosh, that was another great moment," Kayla said.

At one point Swift got up without saying anything and walked to a different part of the room with her phone.

"She sang into her phone," Kayla said. "Her mom said that's how she does her music. It was so cool to witness that. The first time I heard her I fell in love with her lyrics. I like to write poetry and I love her words and the thoughts she shares."

After the long lunch, Swift's tour bus driver drove the Kincannons back to their hotel two hours away. They looked through a huge gift basket the singer gave Kayla. She got Taylor Swift CDs, DVDs, 10 T-shirts, notebooks, stickers, jewelry, perfume, and a calendar, tour book, blanket and backpack.

The family got to enjoy the long holiday weekend as Swift left for a concert tour. Kayla said she is having a wonderful time reliving the experience since returning to school on Tuesday.

Her lunch with Swift was the talk of Lamphere, whether she was in the room or not.

"My friend Kristin (Smith) said all we did was talk about you in my first three classes," Kayla said, adding she is thankful for all the students, teachers and strangers who helped her wish come true.

"It was all a blessing."

The Kincannons belong to Woodlawn Church, Royal Oak, and they credit the power of prayer and strong faith for Kayla beating cancer as long as she has.

After meeting with experts from Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, the Burzynski Clinic, Texas, and points in between, the family has decided to heed the advice of the St. Jude doctors and hold off on any further treatment for Kayla. They are savoring this point in time.

"Three hospitals believe it is necrosis and three believe it's a tumor," Kayla said. "It's literally 50/50. At St. Jude's they said if it is a tumor it would have made itself known by now."

She said she will go ahead with physical therapy to try to strengthen her left foot and keep hoping for the best.